


stone and claw

by Jothowrote



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Background Kobolds, Background Others - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:33:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,677
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28201653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jothowrote/pseuds/Jothowrote
Summary: Skraak tells Hamid about some Kobold customs. Hamid very quickly gets to see them in action.(mild spoilers for after 179)For echerzo in the RQ Secret Santa 2020.
Relationships: Hamid Saleh Haroun al-Tahan/Skraak
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27
Collections: Rusty Quill Secret Santa 2020





	stone and claw

**Author's Note:**

  * For [escherzo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/escherzo/gifts).



> For echerzo - sorry it's only SFW, hopefully it ticks some of your other boxes!
> 
> There isn't much about Kobold customs in actual lore, so I made most of it up. Since the kobolds in RQG are a bit of a special case anyway, hopefully that aligns with their characters!

Skraak came to sit by Hamid after breakfast. Hamid was perched slightly to the side of the other Kobolds. He sat close enough that their legs brushed together. Hamid wondered, abstractly, whether Skraak and the others were suffering from the cold more than the rest of them, cold-blooded as they were. All the Kobolds were wrapped up pretty warmly – and in Hamid’s hand-made winter clothes, he was pleased to see – all except Sassraa, standing out from the group with their new white horns, who had abandoned their winter coat for a light jacket.

‘Oh. Hi, Skraak,’ Hamid said quietly.

‘You were watching them,’ Skraak said, tipping his snout towards the backs of Zolf and Wilde as they left the breakfast room together. The two of them were standing so close their hands were just brushing, though neither breached the gap between them.

‘Yeah,’ Hamid sighed.

‘Are they together? Courting?’ Skraak asked, switching to English, the word sitting awkwardly in his mouth.

Hamid shrugged.

‘I think so. It’s none of my business, anyway,’ he said, turning back to his food and poking it around a bit with his fork.

‘I thought that… your kind of courting generally involved more touching,’ Skraak said, looking thoughtful. ‘Azu and Kiko were holding hands.’

Hamid just shrugged again, spearing a small vegetable on the tines of his fork and staring at it.

‘It is for some people,’ Hamid said, ‘not for others. People have different preferences.’

‘It’s easier for us,’ Skraak said, in something of a smug tone. ‘We’re a lot more… pragmatic,’ he said, rolling the unfamiliar word around his dragony mouth. ‘Our partnerships tend to be mostly for practical reasons, so we give our potential companions items we think will be useful to them. Not so much of this… awkward talking.’

‘Oh?’ Hamid asked, though it came from politeness rather than any interest. Usually, he would be excited that one of the Kobolds, even Skraak, was willing to sit and talk with him. As it was, he was too emotionally wrung out to muster much enthusiasm. Having watched his friends essentially pair up and leave the breakfast room, Hamid was feeling a little delicate. He was happy for them, of course – any good friend would be! But he also felt, just a little, left out. 

‘I thought you and Mr Smith were close,’ Skraak said, with his usual directness, somehow cutting directly to the heart of one of Hamid’s many problems.

Hamid was all out of shrugs.

‘We were,’ he said, shortly, spearing another vegetable with a little more aggression than before. ‘Not anymore. He was never… happy, not really.’ Hamid sighed and allowed himself one brief look at the doorway. Wilde and Zolf had long since departed. Hamid didn’t ever remember seeing that kind of smile on Zolf’s face in the whole time they had known each other, from London to Paris to Prague. ‘He seems to be now, though. Happy, I mean.’

‘You two don’t… hold hands?’ Skraak asked. He sounded strangely stilted, even for Skraak’s usual tone. Without realising, Hamid had been speaking draconic, the harsh language rolling off his tongue as easily as English, easier than French. It felt natural, in a way he wasn’t sure he was entirely comfortable with.

‘No, we don’t,’ Hamid said. ‘Perhaps, once… but no.’

‘You don’t hold hands with anyone,’ Skraak said.

‘No, Skraak, I’m not with anyone,’ Hamid said, a little annoyed now that Skraak seemed to be rubbing Hamid’s loneliness in his face. ‘Except Azu, of course, but that’s a friend thing, not a… a _companion_ thing.’

Skraak just hummed, the interrogation apparently over, and Hamid turned back to his breakfast with a sigh. Beside him, Skraak began to run a strange sort of whetstone over his shining claws. Hamid snuck glances at Skraak’s claws – they looked long, shiny, and sharp. They were in sharp contrast with his own claws, which looked dull and rough whenever they made their appearance. The whetstone Skraak was using was an obsidian black colour, shot through with opalescent strands, and it glittered in the low lights of the room. It was a beautiful object, and it was polishing Skraak’s dark red claws until they shone a burnished crimson.

Skraak caught him looking, and he ceased the repetitive motion of stone over claw. 

‘This stone keeps my claws sharp and polished,’ Skraak said. He was staring at Hamid’s own clawed hands with a gimlet eye, and Hamid fought the urge to hide them under the table and out of sight. It had been a while since he’d had a good manicure.

As soon as Hamid scooped up the last scraps of his breakfast and swallowed them down, Skraak stood up and stared down at Hamid in an impatient fashion.

‘You should come with us,’ he said, the harsh draconic language making it sound more like an order than a suggestion.

‘Where are you going?’ Hamid asked, looking around and realising that the other Kobolds were already gone. ‘Where are the others?’

‘You should come with,’ Skraak insisted, gesturing with his shining claws.

Hamid looked around the room – everyone else had pushed off to do their own thing, and he wasn’t about to sit by himself all day. So he shrugged, and followed Skraak out of the breakfast hall and round the back of the bunkhouse, where there sat a small, squat wooden cabin.

‘The others found this, before,’ Skraak said, and he opened the door to reveal… steam?

‘What…’ Hamid began, but Skraak had already pushed him inside and shut the door behind him. It was cold on top of the giant bear, but Hamid maintained his endure elements spell religiously and kept himself bundled up in his winter clothing. The steam inside the wooden cabin was almost oppressively hot and went deep into Hamid’s lungs, making him cough.

‘What is this?’ Hamid asked, even as he squinted around and saw the source of the steam – a huge, raised tub of water, gently bubbling with heat. The other Kobolds were lounging in it already, like it was some kind of massive bath, and Hamid realised with a start that they were all naked. He turned away, blushing, only to see Skraak systematically stripping himself of his own winter clothes.

‘Oh, um,’ Hamid stuttered, staring up at the ceiling of the wooden cabin instead and hoping the heat would hide his blush.

‘We have scales,’ Skraak said, clearly catching on to Hamid’s discomfort. ‘Clothes are generally pointless, apart from to keep us warm.’ He switched to his stilted English. ‘Modesty is not a word in draconic,’ he said, raising one eyebrow.

Hamid still looked away as Skraak – all the shining red scales of him – climbed gracefully into the bath to join the others. 

‘Come on,’ Skraak said, beckoning at Hamid. ‘Follow.’

Hamid’s hands hovered over his cloak and his sleeves as he looked around through the steam at the other Kobolds. Natun and Sassraa both had their eyes closed in bliss as they soaked in the hot water, while Draal and Driaak were deep in conversation and were paying no attention to him whatsoever. Skraak was still staring at him pointedly. But the hot water looked so inviting…

‘I’ll look away,’ Skraak said, with a hint of amusement.

‘If you don’t mind,’ Hamid said, primly. Once Skraak turned his head, Hamid quickly stripped himself of most of his clothes and slipped into the water. Once he was in, he felt a lot less exposed, and the bubbles helped obscure his body – his wet underwear could be dealt with later, and the water was so wonderfully warm. 

‘This is comfortable for us,’ Skraak said, waving a hand at the water, the steam.

‘Of course – you’re cold-blooded,’ Hamid said. ‘You must have been so cold!’

‘We are fine,’ Skraak said. ‘This is just…’

‘Nice,’ Hamid finished.

‘Yes. Nice,’ Skraak agreed, with one of those strange half-smiles that showed rather a lot of fang.

The water really was lovely, and Hamid sank back to relax like the others. His thoughts drifted like the steam, taking him back to the past – back when he and Zolf had been close, back before Sasha and Grizzop had been lost. Hamid guiltily wished for those times again – Zolf had been miserable, but he had looked after the team, and Hamid had looked after Zolf. After Prague, as awful as it had been, Hamid had taken charge in Zolf’s stead, certain of his place in the team and of his usefulness.  
Now, with Zolf back to take charge but irrevocably changed, their original dynamic lost to time and hardship, Hamid was struggling to find his place in the team. He and Zolf had wrestled a little over being in control, though Hamid had been willing to give it up, even when it left him rudderless. Then Hamid had thought himself suddenly in charge of the Kobolds, and though it had made him uncomfortable it had given him something to do, given him people to care for. He was at his best when he had someone to care for. But the Kobolds had been all one big deception, and now he was back to nothing.

‘You have heavy thoughts,’ Skraak said, cutting through Hamid’s melancholy.

‘Yes, I suppose I do,’ Hamid said, sighing. He cracked open one eye to see Skraak frowning at him.

‘Why?’

‘I just… I don’t really know what I’m doing here,’ Hamid said.

Skraak looked around.

‘Getting warm,’ he said, as though it were obvious, and Hamid was very thick.

‘No, I mean, here in general. In the northern wastes,’ Hamid said, chuckling a little. ‘I mean, I was useless before, in the ritual. I’m not close with anyone, really, except Azu, and she has Kiko now. I’m… extraneous. I had all these big ideas of saving the world, but in reality I’m just a halfling who’s out of his depth.’ Hamid let out a wry little giggle that hitched into a sob right at the very end.

Skraak looked alarmed.

‘Not a halfling,’ he pointed out. One clawed hand plunged into the water and dragged up Hamid’s hand, the claws dull brass next to the ruby red of Skraak’s claws. ‘Do halflings look like this?’

‘Well, dragony halfling,’ Hamid shrugged.

‘You need this.’

‘Oh, but…’ Hamid stuttered, as Skraak shoved the obsidian, opal-streaked stone into his hands. ‘But that’s yours!’

‘I have others,’ Skraak shrugged, ‘and you need one.’

‘Thanks,’ Hamid said, a little taken aback.

‘It is a useful object,’ Skraak said, raising his eyebrows meaningfully, though what the meaning was Hamid couldn’t quite grasp.

‘Yes,’ he said, awkwardly. He examined the stone – it was heavier than he had expected, and it felt smooth and warm. He attempted to run it over his claws, but the angle was wrong and it scraped along with an awful grating sound. Hamid panicked and dropped the stone. It sank to the bottom of the tub with a dull thump.

‘Here,’ Skraak said, diving under quickly to grab it and resurfacing with a great spout of water from his mouth. ‘Like this.’

Skraak took one of Hamid’s hands and tugged it firmly but gently towards him, then paused, staring at Hamid as though waiting for permission. Hamid nodded, suddenly struck mute, and he watched as Skraak ran the stone skilfully over Hamid’s brassy claws. Skraak moved with strong, confident strokes, and after only four passes of the stone one of Hamid’s claws was already shining in the low light. A few more, and it glittered like gold and looked wickedly sharp.

‘Won’t I cut myself?’ Hamid asked, panicking and pulling his hand back, taking it slightly out of Skraak’s grasp. Skraak’s grip just tightened, and he looked at Hamid with that same long-suffering expression Hamid saw a lot on Skraak’s face.

‘That’s what our scales are for,’ Skraak said, guiding Hamid’s hand to his own arm and dragging Hamid’s claws along the dark red scales. Hamid flinched, but there was no mark left behind.

‘See?’

‘But I don’t have…’

Hamid tailed off as Skraak leant close and raised a sharp, dark-tipped crimson claw. Hamid held his breath as Skraak dragged his claw down Hamid’s arm, but there was no answering sting of pain – instead, brassy scales sprung up beneath Skraak’s claw, as though they had been there the whole time and merely waiting for his touch. It was a strange sensation – Hamid’s scales felt hard and sensitive all at once, and he shivered as Skraak’s claw skated down his arm.

‘See?’ Skraak said, his draconic rasp quieter now. ‘Your scales protect you.’

Hamid was suddenly very aware of how close Skraak was, and their respective states of undress. Nakedness might not be a big deal for Kobolds, but it was something of a big deal for Hamid, and he wiggled backwards in the water while looking around at the others.

But the other Kobolds had gone.

‘They left while you were asleep,’ Skraak explained, apparently unconcerned by Hamid’s sudden retreat.

‘Oh,’ Hamid said. ‘I didn’t realise I fell asleep.’

‘Only for a little while,’ Skraak said.

‘Thank you for staying with me.’

‘I wanted to give you this.’ Skraak held out the rock again. 

‘Thanks,’ Hamid said, taking care not to drop it again – it wasn’t polite to drop a gift – and then something clicked in his head. His mind crunched to a halt. It couldn’t be. He was imagining things. He was misunderstanding the Kobolds again, just as he had done before, and just as he was sure he would continue to do.

But it made sense. He had to ask. He had to make _sure_.

‘Skraak…’ he said, slowly, ‘please… correct me if I’m getting the wrong idea, here, but is this a… a courting gift?’

‘Yes,’ Skraak said plainly. ‘Is it not obvious?’

‘Well,’ Hamid spluttered, ‘I’m not really _au fait_ with Kobold mating habits-‘

‘I know,’ Skraak said, patiently, though the patience sounded taught as a string and ready to snap. ‘Which is why I told you about them earlier. And made sure you were not already in a partnership.’

‘Oh, you…’ Hamid trailed off. ‘You did,’ he admitted. ‘Sorry, I…’

‘You weren’t really listening,’ Skraak said.

‘No, I was!’ Hamid cried. ‘I just… didn’t realise it was important.’ The whole conversation at the breakfast table suddenly, with hindsight, was making a lot more sense.

Skraak just raised his eyebrow again – the effect was markable, mainly due to the fact that rather than hair, his eyebrows were thick ridges of scales that arched high above his lizard-like eyes. 

‘Well?’ he asked, still looking at Hamid.

Hamid looked down at the stone in his hand, and at his one shining claw next to his other dull ones. He looked down at the trail of brassy scales down his arm, with Skraak’s clawed hand still resting gently on his own.

Their clawed hands were remarkably similar, Hamid realised, and Skraak was looking at him intently. Maybe his job wasn’t to look after the Kobolds – at least, not in the way he had assumed. But maybe – just maybe – he could find his place with Skraak.

‘You said… your partnerships were only for practical reasons,’ Hamid said, drawing away a little, shrinking in on himself. ‘Is that all this is?

Skraak tilted his head.

‘You are an interesting and powerful ally,’ he said. ‘So it is practical, in that way. But it is also practical, because you need me.’ Skraak picked up Hamid’s hand again, separating the one shining claw from the others. ‘And I need you,’ he added, snapping out his small gliding wings. 

It wasn’t quite a declaration of love, but it was something akin to that. Hamid thought again of the shivers down his neck when Skraak ran his claw down his arm. He shivered again, imagining it further.

‘So?’ Skraak asked, tilting his head again.

Hamid paused for a second.

‘Yeah,’ Hamid said, quietly. He cleared his throat. ‘Yes,’ he said, again, in a stronger voice. 

Skraak bared his teeth in the Kobold version of a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> This pairing is catching me by surprise - I had never even considered it before this prompt, but I really enjoyed writing this!


End file.
